Why and how to check in with your employees

The number one secret to having happy customers is having happy employees.  No matter what else you have in place, if your employees don’t like what they do, customers will notice, and they won’t like working with you.  When you are thinking about how to gather customer feedback, remember that employee feedback should be part…

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Don’t forget your lesson plan for the office

You remember school, and then school ended and you had some training at work, and then you were the boss, and you started your own business.  At some point that formal “learning” ended.  But is “learning” actually complete? Continuous improvement If you answered yes then you are probably not a regular reader of this blog.…

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Business Continuity: Why and How

The following is a recording of an online conversation I had with Tanya Osensky about business continuity: what it is, why it matters, and how to do it. I shared this as part of my Events list, but I am receiving always more questions about this subject matter, so it is worth highlighting as its…

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Rebecca G. Brizi joins “How’s Your ePresence?” with Mark Galvin

Mark and I had a terrific chat for his podcast How’s Your ePresence. We covered it all: Why strategizing upstream will make marketing more effective What does it mean to bring diversity of thought into the workplace Let’s re-frame how we “fail” and “succeed” How does consistency make a business more effective See the video…

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What to do when people are bad at their job

The first thing is to tell them.  People miss this one simple step more often than you would imagine.  The test Most managers believe that they are telling their employees what the problems are.  The test happens when you fire that employee: if the employee is surprised the problem was the manager, not the employee. …

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How to communicate with your remote team

Get out of email: we covered that in the last blog post.  And you can’t just pop your head around the corner and ask a quick question since you are all working in different locations.  The question remains: how do you replace these communication methods and still maintain good communication habits? While you can’t simply…

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Four Simple Rules For Successful Remote Teams

How many times have you heard the phrase: Remote working is the new normal. Do you know what the new normal actually is?  The New Normal is knowing that we could have to adapt our work practices very suddenly, at any given moment. The New Normal is the realization that we can’t predict disruption and…

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Why You Need To Be Loud … Remotely

Working from home, remote working, staying at home while trying to work… whatever you call it, some version of the home office is probably here to stay.  When you were at the office, you were physically present and could be seen at your desk, in meetings, and doing all the work things.  Now your presence…

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Goals Are Not Smart

Achieving work-life balance means knowing what makes us content, both in work and outside of it. Letting your employees bring their personal goals into the workplace will create a strong working culture, with a happy team.  The secret is having everybody use the same structure for managing their goals, so they can be aligned with…

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Cultural Hiring Risks

Learn the Lessons

Last week we discussed the risks associated with making hiring decisions based exclusively on company culture.  If your business lacks a diversity of ability and thought, it will struggle to grow and develop.  This week, let’s dive into a few of these risks to see them in action.  Skills diversity You will always need people…

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